Kagan temporarily pauses Jan. 6 committee subpoena for Kelli Ward’s phone records

Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward received an interim win at the Supreme Court courtesy of liberal Justice Elena Kagan on Wednesday, who temporarily blocked enforcement of a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee seeking her phone records.

Ward was one of 84 “alternative electors” subpoenaed by the committee. The so-called electors falsely claimed that former President Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election in their state.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supported an earlier lower court ruling that rejected Ward’s arguments to block the subpoena. She said in court filings that the subpoena violates her right to freedom of association under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

Kagan’s order leaves the door open for the entire Supreme Court to take up the matter.

The majority of an appeals court panel had rejected Ward’s rationale to squash the subpoena.

“There is little to suggest that disclosing Ward’s phone records to the committee will affect protected associational activity,” the two judges on the panel wrote. “This subpoena does not target any organization or association.

“The investigation, after all, is not about Ward’s politics; it is about her involvement in the events leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, and it seeks to uncover those with whom she communicated in connection with those events.”

The justices are already considering if Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., should answer questions from a special grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia investigating efforts by Trump to overturn state election results there.

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